Jesuits and me

To readers of my blogs it must be amply evident that I am an unabashed admirer of the Jesuits. This admiration started in school that I went to and which was run by the society of Jesus in Bombay. I had transferred from a secular school and the discipline and rigor of the school came as a refreshing change. But it was the fathers who taught me who left an indelible mark.

One of them was Father Beech, a tough Irish catholic who led us into mysteries of Shakespeare and taught us to appreciate poetry. Father Beech was a bull of a man who, the story goes, could lift, over his head, an average size seventh standard schoolboy, purely with the strength of his mighty right arm. Nobody that I know, had actually seen him do it, but legend has it that he could roll up his sleeve and perform the feat anytime, and none among us whom he taught English Language, English Literature, and Scripture, at St. Mary’s school in Bombay, long, long ago, in the nineteen-fifties, ever doubted it. He made me a lifelong admirer when he selected me to play the title role as McBeth in the annual school play. That he would select a dark hued, mildly obese Indian lad to play the starring role came as a quite a shock to me. He went to teach me about spirituality and how merit would, if persisted with, reap its own reward.

Jesuit education was based on the principles of character formation elaborated by St. Ignatius of Loyola. It is this which gave Jesuit education its special character. The Jesuit school aimed at the integral personal formation of the students. 

 to help the students become mature, spiritually oriented men of character:
 to encourage them continually to strive after excellence in every field;
 to be clear and firm on principles, courageous and resolute in action;
 to be unselfish in the service of their fellow men and become agents of progressive social change;
 to instill in then a true national spirit, a deep love for the motherland, an appreciation of Indian culture, values, language, and things Indian, and a keen civic and social sense.

But even more than their educational objetives, it were the the fathers who imparted it that really remain in ones memory.

Another was Father Balaguer who was then the most learned of the Jesuits and was the principal of St Xaviers college. Now I did not go to St Xaviers but my three cousin brothers did. Purely by chance I met him for the first time at their residence and got into a spirited argument with him. I dont even remember what the subject was. Anyway later I was to find out that he wrote along letter --still my treasured possession -to my father arguing that I was too precious a talent to simply spend my life as an engineer. My father was as surprised as I was and replied in a long courteous letter appreciating the interest Father Balaguer had decided to take in his son." I have been a teacher", his letter said, " half my life and to see this passion and involvement in a student by an educationist of your calibre is really inspiring." 

Needless to say, despite this letter, in my headstrong views, I did not join his college -- many times to my regret- and went onto a career in engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology and MIT.

As I look back the memories of the care and concern these Jesuit fathers displayed in me kept me buoyed through many a troubled time in the future.